Why We Love It: With the number of perfumes out there, it can be hard to find your signature scent. Even when you do find one you like, you’re usually so over it by the time you reach the bottom of the bottle. Scentbird allows you to mix up your perfume and cologne game each month with 450+ high end scents to choose from – leaving you smelling fresh as a flower.
Custom Picked Items. With many subscription boxes, the items you receive each month are chosen especially for you, based on your particular needs and preferences. This can be a major boon for people who have trouble finding what they like in stores, or who just don’t enjoy shopping. And for many people, knowing the items were chosen just for them increases the thrill of opening a new box. According to Dorman, getting these “handpicked” items boosts people’s self-esteem and “makes them feel unique.”
11. Frank And Oak: Frank and Oak's clothing subscription service is a hassle-free and affordable way to upgrade your wardrobe every month without leaving the house. All you have to do is fill out a survey about your style preferences and sizing and sit back. Next, you'll get an email with a preview of three items of clothing handpicked by a Frank and Oak stylist based on your personal style. You get 48 hours to add or edit items in the box or skip the entire order. All subscribers get 20% off each piece of clothing they decide to keep. Plus, free shipping and returns.
Overbuying. While a subscription box usually costs less than buying all the items in it separately, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t buy all those items if they didn’t come in your box. For instance, a $29-a-month BarkBox subscription works out to $350 each year. Chances are, that’s a lot more than you’d normally spend just for toys and treats. Over the long term, it could add significantly to the cost of owning a dog.
Convenience. Having items delivered automatically each month can save shopping time. For example, LearnVest quotes a subscriber named Lindsay Karr, who’s a teacher and also the mother of a six-month-old baby. She uses the Subscribe & Save service from Amazon to get baby food, toilet paper, and other home goods on a monthly schedule. That way, she doesn’t have to take time out of her busy schedule for “running around town from store to store.”
Is It More Than You Need? A box isn’t a good value if it’s going to tempt you into buying more of any one item than you would normally want. Even if the cost per item is good, it’s likely to be more than you’d spend buying just one item each month. Plus, you’ll be cluttering up your house with more socks, cat toys, or bottles of nail polish than you can use.
So there is one thing you need to remember about a few of these monthly subscription boxes, like Allure. Some offer a reduced first month rate but then will renew at a normal rate once the first month is over. That’s why it’s super important to turn off the auto-renew option on any boxes that you know you won’t want to subscribe to on a monthly basis.
Why We Love It: High quality beauty products are expensive and a gamble. Birchbox sends out samples for men and women based off your beauty profile and allows you to rate them so they can further customize your next order. You get to try out high end products to see what works best for you for next to nothing, and if you find something you like then you can purchase the full size version directly from their website. Also BirchBox were also one of the OG’s of monthly subscription boxes.
7. Pipsticks: If the idea of receiving packs of cute stickers every month in your mail gets you excited then you need to get a Pipsticks subscription ASAP! They offer two subscription services — for kids and for 'pros' (adult sticker enthusiasts). Each monthly package comes with 15 or more sheets of theme-based stickers, a quote card and a fun postcard to share the sticker craze with your loved ones or pen pals. From funky food trucks and glittery unicorns to raindrops, beaches and scratch-and-sniff strawberries — each monthly pack will make the #stickeraddict in you squeal with joy. Plus, they're all set to launch a collection of chic journals, sticker books and planners that will be available from June (Spoiler: the planners come with sparkly, holographic pouches, creative prompts, sticker sheets, patterned sticky notes and much more!). You can pre-order yours here.
8. Vinyl Me, Please: Vinyl Me, Please's monthly subscription service is a treat for audiophiles. Every month the subscriber receives a limited edition vinyl LP (often in color), a 12x12 album-inspired art print and a cocktail recipe to complement the music. Each Record of the Month, whether a current release or a special re-issue, is thoughtfully curated, aimed at broadening the musical taste of the subscriber. Plus, you get to enjoy additional content online, including their podcast and Spotify playlist.
Difficulty of Quitting. In theory, you can cancel a subscription box at any time. However, it’s not always easy to do. McCall says the hassle of canceling is often enough to make people hold on to a service, even after they’ve lost interest in it. He compares it to a gym membership you’re no longer using: As long as the fee is low enough to make it seem like a good deal, it won’t seem worthwhile to cancel the service.
Although often considered a splurge, subscription boxes can be quite the little life-savers. Say you always forget to buy razor blades until it’s too late (read: you’ve got serious razor burn)? There’s a subscription box for that. Never remember to eat breakfast in morning and feel totally drained by noon? There’s a subscription box for that. Or maybe you never have anything fun (cough, cough, educational) to do with your kids on a rainy day. Yep, there’s even a box for that. While you can’t possibly sign-up for them all, we’ve rounded up the top-rated options to help you make the best choice.